Rein Ahas (10 December 1966 – 18 February 2018) was an

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and t ...

n geographer and a professor at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

Education

In 1991 he received his undergraduate degree in Physical Geography and Nature Conservation from the

, in 1994 he completed his MSc and in 1999 his PhD, with the thesis "Spatial and Temporal Variability of Phenological Phases in Estonia", supervised by Prof.

Ülo Mander Ülo Mander (born 11 January 1954 in Tartu) is an Estonian ecologist and geographer. In 1983, he defended his doctoral thesis at University of Tartu. He is teaching at the University of Tartu's Institute of Geography (since 1992 a professor). 19 ...

and

Jaan Eilart Jaan Eilart (24 June 1933 – 18 May 2006) was an Estonian phytogeographer, landscape ecologist, cultural historian and conservationist. Eilart was born in Pala, Kirna Parish, Järva County. In 1957 he started teaching conservation as a s ...

Employment

*2013–2015 Researcher-professor of the

Estonian Academy of Sciences Founded in 1938, the Estonian Academy of Sciences ( et, Eesti Teaduste Akadeemia) is Estonia's national academy of science in Tallinn. As with other national academies, it is an independent group of well-known scientists whose stated aim is to ...

*2011–2018 Visiting professor at the Geography Department of the Ghent University, Belgium *2006–2018 Professor of Human Geography, University of Tartu, Department of Geography *2002–2006 Senior researcher, University of Tartu, Department of Geography *1998–2000 Lecturer, University of Tartu, Institute of Geography *1994–2000 Researcher, University of Tartu, Institute of Geography visiting researcher *ETH of Zürich, Switzerland (2012) *Umeå University, Sweden (2011) *Vienna Technical University, Austria (2008) *Oxford University, Environmental Change Institute, UK (2001) *Fulbright visiting researcher at the University of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA (2001)

Research

The main research topics included spatial mobility of people, travel,

urban geography Urban geography is the subdiscipline of geography that derives from a study of cities and urban processes. Urban geographers and urbanists examine various aspects of urban life and the built environment. Scholars, activists, and the public have ...

and

segregation Segregation may refer to: Separation of people * Geographical segregation, rates of two or more populations which are not homogenous throughout a defined space * School segregation * Housing segregation * Racial segregation, separation of human ...

. Special interest on using and developing

mobile positioning Mobile phone tracking is a process for identifying the location of a mobile phone, whether stationary or moving. Localization may be effected by a number of technologies, such as the multilateration of radio signals between (several) cell towers o ...

based methods. Previous research included the impact of climate change, environmental impact and

seasonality In time series data, seasonality is the presence of variations that occur at specific regular intervals less than a year, such as weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Seasonality may be caused by various factors, such as weather, vacation, and holidays a ...

. Scientific activities focus to Mobility Lab of University of Tartu. Co-founder and co-owner of spin-off company Positium LBS.

Death

On 18 February 2018, Ahas collapsed while competing in the Tartu Ski Marathon. He was resuscitated by fellow skiers and taken to the University of Tartu Hospital, where he died of what was determined to be a

myocardial infarction A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ...

, aged 51.

Acknowledgments

* 2012 ISI Essential Science Indicators (ESI) cumulative citation count rose above the 1% threshold. * 2007 Association of American Geographers, Climate Specialty Group. John Russell Mather Paper of the Year 2006 for the article Schwartz, MD, Ahas, R., Aasa, A. 2006. Onset of Spring Starting Earlier Across the Northern Hemisphere. Global Change Biology. 12(2): pp. 343–351. * 2006 Junior Prigogine Medal, University of Siena and the Wessex Institute of Technology in honour of the late Professor Prigogine's Nobel Prize in Chemistry. * 1983 School students’ Scientific Association's (ÕTÜ) Research Medal

Publications

Top 5 cited publications in Google Scholar * Ahas, R. 1999. Long-term phyto-, ornitho- and ichthyophenological time-series analyses in Estonia. Int. J. Biometeorology, 42, pp. 119–123. * Ahas, R., Aasa, A., Menzel, A., Fedotova, V.G., Scheifinger, H. 2002. Changes in European spring phenology. Int. J. Climatology, 22, pp. 1727–1738. * Ahas, R., Ü. M. 2005. Location based services—new challenges for planning and public administration?. Futures, 37, pp. 547–561. * Menzel, A., Sparks, T., Estrella, N., Koch, E., Aasa, A., Ahas, R., Alm-Kübler K., et al. 2006. European phenological response to climate change matches the warming pattern. Global Change Biology, 12: pp. 1969–1976. * Schwartz, MD, Ahas, R., Aasa, A. 2006. Onset of Spring Starting Earlier Across the Northern Hemisphere. Global Change Biology. 12(2): pp. 343–351.

External links

Estonian Research Portal - Rein AhasUniversity of Tartu, Department of Geography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahas, Rein 1966 births 2018 deaths Estonian geographers University of Tartu alumni Academic staff of the University of Tartu